From the Doctor’s Desk: Distribution Decisions

At the recent AANP Convention at Snowbird in Utah, I was once again asked why Mountain Peak Nutritionals® doesn’t offer its products through distributors. Just about every major supplement player has signed on with either Natural Partners or Emerson Ecologics. I understand that companies want to get their supplement products out there and going through distributors does make sense on the surface, but if one examines the choice more carefully there is so much more involved.

At Mountain Peak Nutritionals® we value our interaction with our doctors. I’ve been in practice since 1985 and I cherish the friendships and associations I’ve developed in those years. When Karen and I started MPN back in 1995 we consciously built our company intending to work closely with the practitioners who trusted our Condition Specific Formulas® to simply deliver better patient outcomes. We have always asked for and appreciated feedback and suggestions from our practitioners. I can’t think of any formula that has not benefited from the addition of some ingredient in its development as the result of a suggestion by one of our providers.

If MPN made the decision to go through a distributor we would lose much of our contact with our practitioners. There would be no one to answer technical questions about our formulas, like why we use a certain form of a raw material over another, or patient related questions on simple usage or suggestions on what we might consider adding to improve a specific formula. I believe that a distribution network that carries over 500 product lines cannot effectively represent and answer such technical questions. Yes, we could sell more products, increase profits, but at what cost? We value the relationships we have developed in our 20 plus years of operation and, frankly, a price cannot be put on that intrinsic value. Until we figure out how we can maintain our mission to support our faithful practitioners, we will continue to shy away from using distributors.